Peek Inside Medford Native Maria Menounos’s Wedding in Greece

Delivering the latest in style, inspiration, helpful tips and tricks, and everything else you need to know to plan the perfect New England wedding.

Photo by AP Photo/Dimitris Lampropoulos

Maria Menounos was so thrilled to tie the knot, she decided to do it twice. After marrying Keven Undergaro in a live TV ceremony on Fox’s New Year’s Eve broadcast last winter, the Medford native and her producer husband recently jetted off to Greece for a traditional Orthodox ceremony and a celebration filled with lemon trees, sweet treats, and twinkle lights. The Emerson College alum and television host revealed the details of the soirée in a series of Instagram posts this week. “I’ve been planning this for maybe a month, but really, I’ve been planning this for a long time in my heart, because I always wanted to return to Greece and do our wedding here,” Menounos said in a video she shared on Instagram on October 6.

The pair, who have been together for 20 years, married in Akovos, the small, southwestern mountain village where her father Coastas Menounos grew up before immigrating to the United States. After the move, Coastas worked with Menounos’s mother Litsa as a janitor at the Channel nightclub in South Boston. In one post, with an image of her and her father on the big day, Menounos explained what having her wedding in Akovos meant to her. “Love my dad so much. This was a dream for him,” she wrote, “Though he’s the proudest American you will find, he is also equally proud of his roots. Growing up we saved all the spare change we found on the nightclub floors we cleaned in Boston to save up and visit Greece. It meant so much to him for us to be connected to our heritage, to know the language and the traditions.”

You might think it’d be a challenge to top a New Year’s Eve wedding in Times Square, but Menounos and Undergaro’s stunning second go-around proved to be just as remarkable. Menounos arrived at the church via horse and carriage, wearing an off-the-shoulder silk organza gown with hand-painted flowers by Greek designer Celia Kritharioti. According to the dress’s designer, who shared the details on Instagram, the bride completed the look with a silk tulle veil. At the tented reception, lemon-dotted greenery and potted trees dressed up long tables for a fresh and cheerful look. The images also suggest that the bash included not one, but two cakes—a towering four-tier layer cake topped with berries, and a bright yellow cake adorned with flowers, lemons, and a top tier with a colorful tile-inspired design.

In the end though, it seems Menounos was most excited to spend the day celebrating with loved ones: “Honestly, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I have the best husband, and the best family,” she said on Instagram. “Nothing is without its problems and nothing’s perfect, but I am so blessed and so, so happy that we get to do this amazing wedding in this beautiful village that I want to move to. Although I think Keven would divorce me and that would kind of suck.”